Polly Tunnel

For a type of greenhouse, see Polytunnel.

Polly Tunnel

— Wikipedian —

Not to be confused with these wee beasties: (Polytunnels on Balhungie Farm, Angus, Scotland)

Don't pick fights with the bullies or the cads

— David Bowie, Kooks, 1971

Hope is like a path in the countryside
At first there is no path
But if enough people walk in the same direction
The path appears

— Lu Xun, 1921

Guten Abend, meine Damen und Herren

I am Polly Tunnel, living at the far end of a small island and looking at the world down a telephone cable. There's a good chance that you've got here because you've found me editing some references. Some people would call me a WikiGnome. Mostly I edit stub- or start-class articles, trying to expand them into something useful. I was originally attracted to writing for WP when I noticed that news stories that interested me didn't seem to be getting into the mainstream media. That was back in 2010. Slowly I became engaged with the WP project and found that my editing interests took unexpected and curious directions. I took part in discussions on talk pages and witnessed the bullying that is meted out to those who are wrong (and on some occasions those who aren't). I was intrigued to discover what an encyclopaedia actually is (a composite of external sources) and that this means at times it has to be as illogical or untrue as its sources. My instinct is to have an enthusiasm for inclusionism and kindness, but when I did a little impromptu patrolling I found that the nature of some editors' contributions was enough to make me despair about humanity. There was always a difficulty in distinguishing between different types of inappropriate edit, which meant that I found myself not always being courteous to good faith editors and generally being grumpy and arrogant with people (sorry). I also found that I was spending far too much time on the task, and which gave me too little time to actually write articles. Periodically I clear my watchlist and give up patrolling.

I'll include some examples of my favourite bugbears:

• Puerility – scurrilous additions concerning the alleged activities of the editor's peers. I suspect in these cases the description of the editor as "puerile" is literally true. Most commonly found on sex-related articles.
• Opinionatedness – article re-writes by people who think that their unsourced opinions qualify as encyclopaedic content, and try and demonstrate this by repeatedly arguing about them. Most commonly found on politics-related articles.
• Bullying – edits (usually reversions) accompanied by an edit summary telling you how badly you've done, how much you've broken and how you shouldn't be an editor. Often accompanied by misinterpretations of the WP style manual and essays. Most commonly found on railway-related articles.
• Obdurate reversion – edits by people who are convinced that no single character of their work can ever be changed, and who will revert any attempt at improvement, often without any explanation. Most commonly found on Spain- and co-operative related articles.
• Reference removal – edits whose only function is to remove reliable citations of books and national newspapers, leaving the article tagged as having insufficient citations. If there is an explanation in the edit summary it is usually "spam" or "non-neutral". Most commonly found on Thailand- and law-related articles.

Incidentally, if any of my edit summaries don't make sense, the culprit is probably my over-zealous spellchecker...

Immer schön locker bleiben

- Polly

My Userboxes General This user contributes using macOS. This user has been on Wikipedia for 14 years and 4 days. This user has extended confirmed rights on the English Wikipedia. (verify) This user fights vandalism. This editor is a WikiGnome. This user has been awarded 1 Barnstar on Wikipedia. This editor is a Veteran Editor and is entitled to display this Iron Editor Star. Interests This user is interested in ancient civilizations. This user is interested in Italy. This user is interested in Austria. This user is interested in Wales. This user is interested in China. This user is interested in North Korea. This user is interested in issues of democracy. This user is interested in law. This user is interested in politics. This user is interested in Public Policy. Beliefs This user is an internationalist. This user is against imperialism. This user believes in gender equality. This user is opposed to political censorship. This user supports the use of green energy. Languages enThis user is a native speaker of the English language. fr-2Cet utilisateur peut contribuer avec un niveau intermédiaire en français. de-1Dieser Benutzer hat grundlegende Deutschkenntnisse. la-1Hic usor simplici latinitate contribuere potest. WikiProjects This editor is a member of Sex work task force.

Memberships and service

This user is a member of the Association of Inclusionist Wikipedians. The motto of the AIW is conservata veritate, which translates to "with the preserved truth". This motto reflects the inclusionist desire to change Wikipedia only when no knowledge would be lost as a result. Currently, this editor has earned the Veteran Editor service award. To get to the next level, Veteran Editor II, they need to meet the editing requirement. Progress towards the next level (by edits): [ 3384 / 4000 ] 84.6% completed    The Original Barnstar This barnstar has been earned by Polly Tunnel through tireless editing in the wikipedia trenches that separate the project from the barbarian hoards who are always knocking at the door. This is well deserved and long overdue. Carptrash (talk) 16:04, 21 July 2017 (UTC)

International Travels
Spent years: | Months: Weeks: Days: Hours: Idea and layout from User:Jpgordon, who took it from User:Calton, who appropriated it from User:Salsb, who stole it from User:Guettarda who borrowed it from User:White Cat

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